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Now Museum-Now You Don't
Now Museum, Now You Don't is the 35th episode of The Venture Bros. and is part of Season 3. Plot The episode begins in 19X9 (the year is partially bleeped out), at Spider Skull Island. However, at this date, the island is the headquarters of the super villain Scaramantula, who leads the Fraternity of Torment (which includes Manotaur and a large-headed villain named Brainulo). The Fraternity is welcoming a new supervillain into their fold, the Japanese Dr. Fangdragon from 'Japananawa' (which is Jonas Venture Senior in disguise) and are planning to kill Rusty. Dr. Venture reveals himself and Team Venture bursts onto the scene in the Excavator Car. Following a melee, the villains and their henchmen are soundly defeated, and only Scaramantula escapes via an underground tunnel. In his escape, he activates the self-destruct mechanism to blow up the island, as he continues down the deep subterranean passage. The mechanism inexplicably shorts out before the countdown completes, and the victorious Team Venture, topside, declare Spider Skull Island their new headquarters. A young Professor Richard "Dicky" Impossible is on hand to photograph their triumph. Fast forward to the present, Dr. Jonas Venture Jr. has decided to open Spider Skull Island to the public by setting up a Jonas Venture Museum. Among the dignitaries are both the current Team Venture (Thaddeus, Brock, Dean and Hank) and the former Team Venture (the Action Man, Kano, Otto Aquarius and Humongoloid (Dr. Entmann), as well as Swifty and Hector, while Ook Ook is frozen in a block of ice). Col. Horace Gentleman arrives to round out the team, explaining that he was not dead when the Venture boys found him in "Twenty Years to Midnight", but that he was in a diabetic coma. Also at the party is Conjectural Technologies, various government dignitaries, and the Fraternity of Torment themselves (excluding the deceased Manotaur). Although they are retired and officially at peace with each other, The Fraternity and the original Team Venture still bear deep ill-will towards each other. They spend most of the evening bickering over old scores. This is not the only source of enmity that evening. A disheveled Professor Richard Impossible arrives, whom Jonas Junior invited as a dignitary. Not only is he drunk and bitter, but his estranged wife Sally is furious that he was invited without her knowledge. Meanwhile, the Sea Captain and his ex-ghost pirates (who now work as butlers and valets) are getting more and more fed up with Jonas Junior's condescending method of management. On top of everything else, Thaddeus/Rusty gets annoyed that Jonas Junior seems to be trying to erase him from the Venture legacy. Unbeknownst to all, Brainulo, while pretending to be senile, is using his psychic powers to amplify the bad feelings of everyone in the room. Soon, this starts to manifest itself -- Richard awkwardly tries to commit suicide in front of everyone by jumping off a catwalk (the fall doesn't injure him at all, but embarrasses Sally), Jonas and Sally begin to have a series of unseemly arguments in front of the guests, and finally, the Captain and his crew attempt a mutiny (and are immediately set on by the Original Team Venture). Meanwhile, the current Team Venture prudently leaves before the fracas reaches a fever pitch. Brainulo tries to activate Futuro, his old attack robot (on display in the museum), with his psychic energy but is unsuccessful. During the melee, a projector is knocked on, which shows a quick film describing what a positive impact Dr. Jonas Venture Sr. had on the world. This display of sentimentality causes everyone to stop fighting. Still trying to activate Futuro, Brainulo overexerts himself and short-circuits his neural implants. Jonas Jr., seeing that his party is back online, asks Rusty Venture to speak only to find that his brother has already left. This surprise is cut short by the re-activation of the Spider Skull Island self-destruct mechanism. Brainulo and Scaramantula escape after unsuccessfully trying to disarm it and the current Team Venture leaves just as the countdown begins, with Thaddeus mocking the situation. The countdown continues as the credits roll. In the epilogue, Spider Skull Island seems covered in Professor Richard Impossible's expanded body, like a gigantic, deflated, hot-air balloon. It is revealed that he put his mouth over the device and contained the blast within his own elastic body, saving everybody. Sally and Jonas Junior thank him for his selfless act. As The Professor retracts back to normal and lies on the floor, the Sea Captain slyly suggests that the Professor was actually trying to commit suicide. Cultural references * There are several James Bond references in this episode: ** Scaramantula's lair is nearly identical to the one in Ernst Blofeld's underground volcano base in the James Bond film You Only Live Twice. ** At the beginning of the episode, Jonas Venture is disguised as a Japanese villain with an extra nipple on his chin. This is a parody of two Bond films: in You Only Live Twice the spy pretends to be Japanese, while in The Man With the Golden Gun, Bond attaches a prosthetic third nipple when going undercover. Jonas Venture's disguise takes both of these already-racy disguises one step farther. ** Scaramantula's name appears based on Bond Villain Scaramanga from The Man With the Golden Gun. * There are several references to Scooby-Doo: ** Jonas Venture Jr. refers to Dr. Venture's suit as "Scooby-Doo purple" ** Dr. Venture mentions the Harlem Globetrotters when Jonas Venture Jr. tells him that everyone their father worked with is at the reception. Given the multiple Scooby-Doo references in the episode, this likely is intended to evoke The New Scooby-Doo Movies, in which the Globetrotters appear as guest stars on three separate occasions. ** The Action Man shouts out "Jinkies! It's pirates!," a reference to the Scooby-Doo character Velma Dinkley. * Dr. Entmann, as the Humongoloid, resembles wrestler André the Giant, who like André, struggles with health problems related to his size - this may also be a reference to the Square-cube law, a proportional mathematics principle that also applies to issues of scaling living systems. The character is also a reference to the Marvel Comics hero Ant Man, who later became the giant-sized hero Giant-Man (renamed Goliath later on). * Col. Horace Gentleman claims to have had a threesome with Wally Schirra and Gore Vidal that turned into a foursome when one of Team Venture's enemies, Killer-Manjaro, tried to ambush him. * Action Man regales Brock Sampson with tales of Team Venture at its prime, including arching Fidel Castro, being debriefed by John F. Kennedy (which was the President's code for a pool party), watching Frank Sinatra perform at the Sands Hotel, and hanging out with the Mercury Seven (including Col. Horace Gentleman's alleged paramour Wally Schirra). * Jonas Venture Jr. has a device on display which he claims is the real atomic secret that Julius and Ethel Rosenberg attempted to steal. * The talking Jonas Venture doll exclaims, "Watch out! Incoming frogmen!" possibly a reference to Jonny Quest, in which frogmen were recurring stock enemies. * Col. Gentlemen refers to Brainula as "The Great Gazoo," a reference to The Flintstones, and calls Scaramantula Spider-Man. * Professor Impossible yells, "I did it all for you, Sally," before attempting suicide, a reference to The Omen. * Scarmantula's spider theme and hairy, inhuman hand are possibly references to the 1960 German horror film Horrors of Spider Island, which featured a hirsute man infected by a spider bite. * Col. Gentlemen calls Brock "Prince Adam," a reference to the alter ego of He-Man from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. * Brainulo's appearance appears similar to that of two DC Comics supervillains: Brainiac (who sported similar neural implants) and Hector Hammond (a large-headed invalid who possessed vast psionic powers). Connections to other episodes * Many minor and background characters from previous episodes can be seen at the party, including Roy Brisby and Mandalay from "The Incredible Mr. Brisby", and Col. Bud Manstrong wearing the medal he received in "Guess Who's Coming to State Dinner?" as well as his mother. * The Venture twins found Col. Gentleman apparently dead in "Twenty Years to Midnight" and this is the first time he's been seen in the present since then. * Of Kano's few appearances, this is the first time we see him breathe fire or speak. * The Manotaur was also in the Fraternity of Torment, but was not at the party; this is likely because Phantom Limb seemingly killed him in "Shadowman 9: In the Cradle of Destiny". * Phantom Limb appears to be in the "Boys Brigade" photograph. He is in a wheelchair with his deformed limbs. * In "What Goes Down, Must Come Up", Dr. Entmann tells Brock he was "15 feet tall." The opening sequence shows him in this form.Episode "What Goes Down, Must Come Up". * H.E.L.P.eR. spirits Rusty away via his helicopter attachment during Team Venture's melee with the Fraternity of Torment, demonstrating his usefulness in search and rescue. Brock mentions this as his great talent in "I Know Why the Caged Bird Kills".Episode "I Know Why the Caged Bird Kills". * Col. Gentleman punches Dr. Venture "for breaking his stepdaughter's heart," referring to the events of "Dr. Quymn, Medicine Woman". * Though it had been hinted at before, this is the first episode in which Col. Gentleman explicitly refers to his homosexual experiences and continuing sexual relationship with his manservant Kiki. In fact, he goes so far as to put them in a published autobiography. * The original Team Venture uses a pair of hover-boots and a hover-bike seen being used by Hank and Dean in previous episodes, as well as the giant drill seen in "What Goes Down, Must Come Up". * Oddly, two of the pirates that Brock killed in the "Ghosts of the Sargasso" episode are shown alive and well. * This is the first time we've seen Otto Aquarius since "Past Tense". Due to his religion, he prefers to distance himself from the other, more-sinful members of the original Team Venture. We also learn that he can communicate with fish, a common trait associated with Atlanteans in fiction. *The Fraternity of Torment was first mentioned in "Fallen Arches" as a rival to the Guild of Calamitous Intent. * Ned is still wearing his New York Jets hat first seen in "Twenty Years to Midnight". Production notes * This is the first episode in which Stephen Colbert does not voice Richard Impossible apart from the pilot episode. He is instead voiced by Christopher McCulloch.TV.com cast list for "Now Museum, Now You Don't" * One of the animation directors (Kimson Albert), and a character/prop designer (Danny Kimanyen), has a "nickname" inserted into his credits. Both are the names of members of the original Team Venture. For "Now Museum, Now You Don't" the credits read Kimson "Ook Ook" Albert and Danny "Kano" Kimanyen. * The Wilhelm scream can be heard in the opening scene. References Now Museum, Now You Don't